Wind generation capacity in Central & Eastern Europe to touch 16GW by 2020

Twelve EU Member States in Central and Eastern Europe plan to increase the installed wind power capacity from 6.4GW at the end of 2012 to 16GW by 2020, a move that could power additional nine million households, according to European Wind Energy Association report.

The report was compiled after the agency examined the emerging wind power markets in Central and Eastern European countries besides Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.

According to the report, Turkey plans to increase wind power generation capacity from its present 2.3GW to 20GW by 2023.

EWEA chief executive officer Christian Kjaer noted that wind power generation in Central, Eastern Europe and Turkey, will substantially decrease the power sectors’ reliance on fossil fuels.

The agency however cautioned that the projected growth was dependent on setting up a stable legal framework in each country.

"But some countries – such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria – are without stable renewable energy legislation, and investors and banks will withdraw unless governments put in place long-term renewable energy policies," Kjaer said.

In 2012, Poland and Romania nearly doubled their annual installed wind power capacity; Poland’s wind power installations now total 2.5GW while those in Romania aggregate to 1.9GW.

Bulgaria reported wind power installations of 0.7GW capacity at the end of 2012.